Bitcoin Payment Debuted on Physical Stores in Shenzhen, China

Bitcoin Ban Fear Fades in Thailand With Exchange Launch

Coins has launched its second bitcoin startup in Southeast Asia with the formal opening of Coins.co.th in Thailand.

The startup has been exchanging baht and bitcoin in Thailand since its soft launch in June, when it received its e-commerce registration from the Huay Khwang District Office.

Jaturong Jantarangs, the Bank of Thailand’s senior director of the payment systems policy department, recently told the Bangkok Post that trading bitcoins for baht does not require approval or a license from the country’s central bank.

As such, Coins claims that its new exchange is now “fully legal” under Thai law.

The move can be seen as a positive sign for bitcoin’s progress in Asia, given that the Bank of Thailand was widely believed to have banned bitcoin in 2013.

The determination also follows statements from the Bank of Thailand issued in March that suggested it did not consider bitcoin a currency.

Regulatory guidance

While it is not being treated as a money services business, Coins.co.th indicated that it does need to follow related laws such as Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code and Consumer Protection Act, as well as its anti­-money laundering (AML) regulations.

Topp Jirayut Srupsrisopa, who will manage Coins.co.th, added that he expects bitcoin’s legal situation in Thailand to become clearer over time, as local regulators learn more about the market and its potential.

Bitcoin Co. Ltd, the first Thailand-based digital currency exchange, also told CoinDesk that it continues to operate in Thailand despite the regulatory uncertainty, and that after its issues with the central bank earlier this year, has received e-commerce licenses for both Bitcoin.co.th and BX.in.th, its two exchange services.

Still, it reports communication with the central bank has been scarce. As managing director David Barnes, told CoinDesk:

“We have not had any recent conversations with Bank of Thailand since around the beginning of the year.”

Empowering Thailand’s workforce

For now, Coins.co.th will continue to allow users in Thailand to pay for bitcoin using their online accounts, or by paying cash at any major Thai bank.

Hose framed the announcement as one that would help the company bring the benefits of bitcoin to the local Thai e-commerce market, which has struggled to develop sophisticated online payments that could enable growth.

Stressing benefits of bitcoin for local users and the future of his exchange, Hose said:

“Bitcoin can be an easy alternative to bank accounts and credit cards for people who cannot access those tools which fills a huge gap in financial service needs in emerging markets such as Thailand.”

Citing the growth of BX.in.th, Barnes concluded:

“We are very optimistic about the future of Bitcoin in Thailand.”

Source : http://www.coindesk.com

ASIC Maker Seeks to Bring German Efficiency to Bitcoin Mining

Bitcoin mining startup CoinBau is looking to move aggressively into the hardware market with a new ASIC chip.

CoinBau’s chip, dubbed Wolfblood Extreme Efficiency, pulls roughly half the electricity necessary per gigahash – approximately 0.19 joules – compared to most options on the market, which range between 0.35 to 0.45 joules per gigahash.

CoinDesk spoke with CEO Sebastian Krause and CTO Markus Winter, who explained that efficiency is going to be the key factor as the global bitcoin mining industry continues to scale. Data center headquartering is becoming increasingly common among companies in the space, they say, and CoinBau is moving to compete with established crypto hardware firms. Its answer: cheaper mining.

With the chip now developed, the Dresden-based company is seeking between $10m and $15m to begin large-scale production of the chip. Citing strong interest as a result of recent coverage in The Wall Street Journal, Krause said that the company will likely reach its fundraising target.

He explained:

“We are talking every day to investors and a lot of miners. We offer small levels of investment, and we got a lot of responses from miners and people from the community who want to invest. They have a lot of questions, and we are very busy.”

The chip, according to the CoinBau team, was developed over the past year and a half during two phases, with the latter stage beginning in late 2013.

Bringing down the joules

CoinBau plans to make bitcoin mining more efficient through a mix of software and hardware solutions. Winter explained that during the R&D period, the CoinBau team addressed one of the fundamental questions that is shaping the increasingly competitive mining industry – how can more be done with less?

Winter said:

“The key for an economically successful mining chip is power consumption, and there are two important factors to power consumption. One is wattage, and the other one is frequency.”

He added that the development team’s deep history in power development made it possible to explore avenues for reducing the wattage while maintaining top-level performance. This, combined with the efforts of RacyICs GmbH, a Dresden-based chip maker, resulted in the achievement of lower power consumption levels.

Staying ahead of the pack

When asked about the new chip’s effect on the market, the company said that the impact of new chips offering a significant reduction in power consumption is already being felt.

Beyond the chatter among miners and investors, Winter suggested that CoinBau’s competitors in the bitcoin mining space are likely to try and adopt their approach. However, he suggested that they will need to spend significant time and money just to keep up.

Winter said:

“We expect our competitors will have to go the same way, but we do not believe they will be able to do it, at least in the next few months. They will have to invest more money and more time.”

In the immediate future, CoinBau remains focused on fundraising. Beyond building out its operations, the company plans to put its new chips to the test by mining, tweaking and moving to deliver products to the industry.

CoinBau is also in the early stages of building industry partnerships, giving it the ability to put its power consumption solution into the hands of miners. Krause suggested that the bitcoins mined during testing could be used to support other projects, though he said that it’s still too early to confirm any specific projects.

He told CoinDesk:

“We are just in the beginning.”

Source : http://www.coindesk.com

Bitcoin Payment Debuted on Physical Stores in Shenzhen, China

Since August of this year, stores accepting bitcoin payment have been emerging in Kexing Science & Technology Park, Shenzhen, where is full of Internet companies. These stores are mainly restaurant. In China, the central bank stated that bitcoin is not currency, but admitted that trading with bitcoin is legal. Although China is one of the biggest markets for bitcoin trade, its bitcoin payment market is still on infancy stage.
Stores: Currently bitcoin payment volume is still small
On the Yuanwei street of Kexing Science & Technology Park, several restaurants have accepted bitcoin as payment. Since the business is just started, cashiers are not familiar with the payment process yet. For example,  'Accept Bitcoin' label has been put on the front door of Cafe de Flore. However, when customers ask if they can pay with bitcoin, cashiers are still muddle-headed. They need time to skilfully process bitcoin payment.
As to Maggies's Club, another bar on the same street, the cashier clearly expressed that they accept bitcoin payment, but customers need download a third bitcoin payment platform, 'Btct' App. Customers transfer bitcoin to their Btct account to finish payment, which is like Paypal in Bitcoin world.
The CEO said she likes the convenience of third payment platform, which has no big difference from Group-Buying platform. Launching bitcoin payment for her bar is icing on the cake, and at least can attract btcer to expand customer pool, even though currently the volume is still very small.
Payment Platform: Still on user development stage

In December of last year, the statement of Central Bank of China has emphasised that bitcoin is not real currency, and forbidden financial institutions and payment institutions to price products or services with bitcoin, but admitted the legitimacy of trading bitcoin, which made bitcoin purely an investment product in China. After experiencing ups and downs, bitcoin price is stabilising between 3589.00 ~ 3634.92 CNY. Bitcoin payment in physical store is still rare. Some bitcoin insider claimed that currently the number of physical stores accepting bitcoin in China is less than 30.
As a third payment platform for promoting bitcoin, the main purpose of Btct is to change the atmosphere of bitcoin speculation in China to the original nature of bitcoin as a payment method. One of the co-founders of Btct said although the number of physical stores accepting bitcoin is still small, Shenzen where has strong Internet cogitation has advantages to promote bitcoin payment. Moreover, Btct provides CNY exchange, which shares the risk of bitcoin fluctuation.

Source : http://localbitcoins.blogspot.in

China’s ‘Big Three’ Bitcoin Exchanges: BitLicense Would Harm Overseas Markets

China’s ‘Big Three’ bitcoin exchanges, OKCoin, BTC China and Huobi, have joined forces to submit feedback to Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), regarding his agency’s recent BitLicense proposal.

In a newly published open letter, the three companies criticized the broad reach of the regulations, stating they should only apply to businesses with meaningful connections to New York.

Signed by company CEOs Bobby Lee of BTC China, Lin ‘Leon’ Li of Huobi and Mingxing ‘Star’ Xu of OKCoin, the letter said:

“While we are companies organized under the laws of the People’s Republic of China, we believe that it is not only appropriate, but also necessary for us to express our thoughts on certain aspects of the BitLicense proposal because the block chain protocol is decentralized, because regulations in New York have long been given great deference and are modeled after by regulators around the world, and because the BitLicense proposal as drafted appears to cover us.”

The three exchanges had previously expressed their opinions on the matter in interviews with CoinDesk, demonstrating just how much of a global reach the US state law could have.

At the time, however, only OKCoin indicated that it would seek to submit a formal response to the NYDFS.

Regulations overreach

Under the proposals, any business that serves customers in New York would be subject to the BitLicense provisions, no matter how tenuous the association.

This would include giving the NYDFS access to all books and records from the company and its affiliates, even if the affiliate’s business had nothing to do with New York or cryptocurrencies. Currently, this is not a requirement for regular money services businesses.

The proposals would also require any licensed business to perform ‘enhanced due diligence’ (EDD) on non-US customers, meaning non-US businesses would be required to perform EDD on customers in their own jurisdictions, but not on those in the US.

This is both time-consuming and ineffective, the Chinese companies said.

Forcing business abroad

The proposed rules are a pertinent issue at a time when the China-based exchanges are increasingly seeking to capture the broader, global US dollar market, which has several regulatory walls of its own.

A BTC China spokesperson told CoinDesk the company “would need to possess a very strong business case” to justify the company applying for a BitLicense under the current proposals. They also acknowledged that businesses in China “face similar challenges”.

They said:

“It is extremely difficult to comply with the regulation as written, and may force us to avoid doing business with ‘New York persons’ or avoid the US entirely. The greatest concern is that other regulators in the US and around the world will follow New York state, which would be very damaging to the industry.”

BitLicenses, if enacted unmodified, would dampen interest in doing business in the US and reduce willingness to work with US companies, they added.

A statement from Huobi said it would be “extremely difficult to comply”, and expressed concern that regulators in other countries may follow New York’s lead.

“The reason why we feel the need to [make the statement] is because Huobi is an international platform, and bitcoin regulation in the US will definitely affect our plan of expanding in America directly. Moreover, we believe there will be direct influence to Chinese regulation because the Chinese government watches closely BitLicense in NY [...] Huobi definitely wants to expand our legitimate business in the US but also needs a flexible bitcoin environment.”

Huobi would “geofence” New York and not apply for a BitLicense if the proposal was enacted, the statement concluded.

OKCoin’s manager of foreign operations, Zane Tackett, said:

“We feel that it was important to release a unified statement because the regulations implemented in New York will likely be used as a model for other states and countries alike. Especially since we’ve started the rollout of our international exchange these regulations – if implemented – will have broad effects on how we operate. It is important to try and help the NYDFS draft the best possible BitLicense for both users of bitcoin, and the state itself.”

 Source : http://www.coindesk.com

Simon Fraser University considering accepting Bitcoin, installing ATMs

 

Simon Fraser University may soon be Canada’s version of MIT, at least when it comes to Bitcoin.

The university has three branches in the Vancouver and with over 30,000 students, is considered one of the country’s leading institutions of higher education. It is the only Canadian university to compete in NCAA.

They are working on embracing Bitcoin starting this fall, accepting it for payment and installing Bitcoin ATMs in its bookstores. Mark McLaughlin, SFU’s executive director of ancillary services, confirmed that the university is evaluating the feasibility of Bitcoin. A pilot project can include dining services. He said:

“It would be about creating somewhat of an ecosystem on our campus. It’s one thing to accept Bitcoin. If there were some ATMs around the campuses, at least it’d make it easier for students to obtain Bitcoin.”

The university will also be hosting a 3-day Bitcoin expo, featuring speakers and exhibitors, on its Vancouver campus this fall. He added, “Digital currencies are definitely here to stay…We recognize that. Other institutions maybe aren’t up to speed yet on digital currencies.”

However, he is fairly sure that there are no plans in the works to accept Bitcoin for tuition payments.

Source : http://dcmagnates.com

Why Margin Trading Became the Scapegoat for Bitcoin’s Price Decline

The price of bitcoin has been the focus of increasing debate over the past week, as, in the wake of its roughly $100 fall, the wider digital currency community has sought to find an answer for what could have caused such a sudden and unexpected movement in the market.

Adding to concerns were the two ‘flash crashes’ that reverberated widely in the mainstream press, one observed on Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange Bitfinex and the other more recently on BTC-e – both of which have been widely attributed to the effects of the exchanges’ margin trading services on their respective markets.

However, members of bitcoin’s margin trading ecosystem allege that, in its search for answer as to what caused the crashes, the community has unfairly labeled them a scapegoat. This segment of the market, including the businesses that offer the service and their consumers, have been blamed unfairly as the impetus for the price decline, they say.

Speaking to CoinDesk, established margin trading service providers such as Bitfinex and OKCoin voiced their concerns about how last week’s events have been interpreted.

Offering a contrasting opinion, they argue that a stable bitcoin market requires the development of more advanced trading tools, including those just being introduced to the bitcoin market such as futures, derivatives and margin trading. Furthermore, they say that implications that margin trading has an outsized influence on the price of bitcoin are unfounded, and that they fail to characterize properly how their margin trading offerings impact their exchange services.

‘A thousand things’

Bitcoin Solutions president Adam O’Brien, whose Canada-based, still-in-beta brokerage service offers traders the ability to borrow 8x leverage, was sympathetic to the concerns of the bitcoin community. He questioned, however, that any one factor could be labelled as the driving force behind the price decline, saying:

“I see where people are coming from with these flash crashes, but there’s a thousand things that could cause a flash crash, just like there are a thousand things that could cause the price to increase rapidly.”

Zane Tackett, manager of foreign operations for OKCoin, which offers its international margin traders up to 3x leverage through peer-to-peer borrowing, acknowledged the influence of margin trading on last week’s decline. Yet, he cautioned that even without this activity in the market, the price would likely have reacted in a similar manner, telling CoinDesk:

“Downward pressure is going to bring the market down whether there is margin trading or not. So, margin trading might have made it happen quicker, but even without it I don’t doubt that we would be in the same situation as we are in today.”

OKCoin is one of three major bitcoin exchanges that offer margin trading, including BTC-e and Bitfinex. Other notable providers include BTC.sx, CampBX and BitMEX.

Educational offensive

Bitfinex has since become the exchange most commonly associated with margin trading due to the fact that prices in its order books declined precipitously last week, falling from roughly $550 down to $451 on 14th August in the first of the market’s two flash crashes.

As evidence of this link, Josh Rossi, vice president of business development at Bitfinex, took to Reddit on 15th August as part of an effort to better explain the volatility observed on the exchange and educate those he acknowledged may feel apprehensive about margin trading.

The ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) session found Bitfinex seeking to highlight how it ensures a fair market on its exchange, while seeking to quell concerns about margin trading activity, which Rossi described as “baseless claims”. Rossi went on to explain that Bitfinex does not believe margin calls, stop orders or any type of leverage contributed to the flash crash on its order books, saying:

“We had approximately 650 BTC sold as the result of margin calls, out of a total amount of sales during this time of around 9,000 BTC. That is roughly 7%. Hardly, the cause of the drop in price.”

Rather, he suggested that a small number of very large orders hit Bitfinex on the morning of the price crash, and that they were flagged as potentially manipulative. As result, the exchange says the actions of the exchange actually prevented a larger crash than the one observed.

Bitfinex told CoinDesk:

“The drastic and sudden sale of a large number of coins, which would do the same thing to any exchange’s order book, was the main influence on people’s actions.”

The traditionally secretive BTC-e has not issued any statements regarding its own flash crash, and did not respond to requests for comment.

Fire in the movie theater

Bitfinex also provided detail in its AMA regarding how it uses “speed bumps” that slow down and flag large orders that could create undue “slippage” in the market, whereby the size of the buy or sell order causes the price to move (up or down) as it is being filled.

While not common for small bitcoin orders, slippage has long been a side effect for extremely large orders. As Binary Financial’s Harry Yeh explained at the time of the Silk Road auction, the 30,000 BTC sale was attractive to investors because if they had sought to purchase $18m in bitcoin on an exchange, the very act of executing the order would drive the price up roughly $50 per coin as it was being filled.

Raffael Danielli, who has chronicled the recent tribulations in the bitcoin market on his Matlab Trading blog, has been critical of Bitfinex and its use of speed bumps, arguing that it should not be up to the exchange to determine the intentions of traders.

Bitfinex, in turn, said its speed bumps are an attempt to protect users, and it dismisses accusations that it may be trying to manipulate the price of bitcoin through these efforts.

The reason for this safeguard, said the exchange, is that it believes traders who are not seeking to in some way manipulate the market would not desire to execute a large order that creates slippage. Sellers, it maintains, have a vested interest in selling each of their bitcoins for the best price possible.

As such, Bitfinex said that any trader would want to avoid incurring a loss on a large sale, explaining to CoinDesk:

‘When a trader is sending an order, and it seems to be against their own interest, or in other words, they are either making a mistake or are not trading with the incentives of an honest participant in the market, the trading engine flags the specific orders that seem to be possibly manipulative in order to result in a better execution for the trader, as well as allowing the market time to catch up and smoothing out the sudden shocks to the system.”

Bitfinex argues that the only reason for a trader to commit such an action would be with the intent of triggering a panic or forcing margin calls, thereby taking advantage of the market’s reaction to their activity.

The exchange added: “This is the equivalent of yelling ‘fire’ in a movie theater, but worse in that you are selling oxygen masks.”

Competitive interests invoked

While Bitfinex did elaborate on how its internal margin trading systems work generally, it declined to speak further in both its AMA and in its conversation with CoinDesk about how its mechanisms for flagging suspicious orders work, citing competitive interests.

Bitfinex did tell CoinDesk how its system works in a broader sense, though, illustrating how its algorithm for managing the exchange’s margin trading risk functions.

To open a margin trade, Bitfinex said, traders must first put up 30% of the value of their trade as collateral, a figure that also represents the total amount that could be lost by the trader should their trade be liquidated. In turn, the individual who provides the remaining collateral gets a guaranteed interest rate for his loan.

Effectively, Rossi explains, it allows two parties to trade exposure to bitcoin’s price movements, with the borrower seeking to leverage this risk to to achieve gains, and the lender seeking to eradicate this risk. A time period is then set for the position, which can extend between two and 30 days.

To ensure the lender is reimbursed, the value of the position is closed if it reaches 15%. The exchange also said it has a robust stop-loss program that has been tested in more volatile markets than the one currently holding the community’s attention.

“We have improved them and added any lessons we learned along the way. We were lucky in that we were able to grow organically, and learn over time,” Rossi told CoinDesk.

Bitfinex offers three types of wallets on its exchange – an ‘exchange’ wallet for traditional buying and selling, a ‘deposit’ wallet that can be used to store funds offered to margin traders and a ‘trading’ wallet where margin trades can be executed.

OKCoin declined to comment on how its systems work to prevent market manipulation, also citing competitive interests, though it said it too has certain mechanisms in place to prevent flash crashes that could affect the wider bitcoin market.

Still, Tackett did suggest it has tools that reduce its exchange’s risk for a flash crash. It cited iceberg orders, which only show a portion of the buy and sell traders on its order book.

“To avoid market manipulation, we choose not to disclose more than 5% of our order book,” Tackett added.

Stabilizing the bitcoin market

Still, all these aspects of the debate fail to take into account the overall benefits of margin trading, respondents say.

Far from disrupting or manipulating the market, representatives of exchanges that offer margin trading argue that these services will help increase liquidity in the bitcoin market, thereby allowing buyers and sellers to more freely act without considering how this will impact price.

Rossi suggested that many in the bitcoin industry view all margin trades as open credit, neglecting to factor in the collateral that helps protects the margin trading service, adding:

“There are no ‘imaginary’ coins being traded, every dollar and every coin is real.”

He went on to describe his service as one that keeps bitcoins from “gathering dust”, instead allowing them to be sold on the market. This in turn increases market participation and liquidity.

To put a face on the service, Rossi sought to illustrate how a variety of members of the bitcoin ecosystem could benefit from the trading options provided by his firm’s service:

“A merchant is more likely to accept bitcoins if he knows that he can exchange them in the future, payment processors need liquid exchanges in order to facilitate merchants sales. Investors need to be able to enter and exit positions rapidly and efficiently, and miners need to be able to forecast whether it is worth using the electricity.”

Bitcoin’s market evolves

In talks with CoinDesk, Bitcoin Foundation director Jon Matonis also struck an optimistic tone that advanced financial services are a sign the bitcoin market is maturing, saying:

“Margin trading in bitcoin that we’re seeing today is a precursor to more sophisticated markets for standardized bitcoin derivatives.”

In the current market, pressure is put on companies like Coinbase and BitPay who must immediately sell the bitcoin they receive to manage their risk. With an active futures market, Matonis said they can sell contracts, thereby agreeing to sell their asset at a certain value at a later date, and allowing them to have more revenue security.

Matonis cited the equities market and the gold and silver mining market as more niche markets that are able to accommodate margin trading and futures. He said, however, that the presence of margin trading and relative absence of futures contracts is a sign of the market’s immaturity.

The key difference between the two instruments, Matonis explained, is that with futures contracts, it is not the exchange or the broker who is lending you the money.

He added: “I think [margin trading] is a stop-gap measure.”

Real risk remains

Matonis noted that exchanges still need to worry about counterparty risk – the chance that one party involved in the margin trade won’t live up to its side of the deal – and that this may be the bigger potential downside to margin trading.

“If you manage your counterparty risk and manage the members of an exchange and do all your due diligence, then in theory there’s nothing wrong with margin trading,” he said. “It’s just that it’s very tempting for those operators to be overextended.”

Rossi agreed that this risk exists, calling it a real problem that needs to be addressed.

He sought, however, to stress that Bitfinex, through its risk management procedures, is taking this threat seriously, stating:

“The key difference is that each user on our platform has already deposited the money that will be traded. In other words, the pool of coins and dollars that is being traded is already present, and there is no counterparty who can fail to deliver. Margin between entities can cause problems, but Bitfinex is a closed loop.”

“All the funds are present before the trade occurs and we act as arbiters who simply divide the funds up between the users,” he explained.

Questioning the community’s reaction

Even so, there was widespread agreement among margin trading service providers that many community members have a negative impression of the practice, in part due to the 2008-2009 financial crisis. As a result, Matonis said that some members of the bitcoin community unfairly equate any type of margin trading or leverage with a system that is out of control.

For example, one prevailing argument against margin trading is that the bitcoin market is too small, and that integrating such services is perhaps premature. O’Brien disagreed, noting that with the recent increase in the bitcoin network’s hashing power, new bitcoins are being introduced to the ecosystem every day.

Still, Rossi attacked the claim more aggressively, suggesting that it was a sign of the lack of overall investment awareness among some bitcoin users.

“Anytime someone says ‘this is different’, I tend to view it as an excuse. When people say that bitcoin is too illiquid, and it is ‘different’ from other assets, I think they don’t have experience in what they are saying.”

Bitfinex and OKCoin also indicated they are doing their part to ensure investors understand the risks of margin trading, though they maintain that traders who use the service must understand the associated risks.

Tackett said:

“I believe having users sign an agreement that details the risk associated with margin trading before being able to trade is a step in the right direction, which is something OKCoin requires.”

Still, he concluded by suggesting that, at the end of the day, those who engage in margin trading need to be aware of the risk they face, and also the affect their behavior could have on other traders:

“An exchange can provide as much information as possible, but the responsibility of reading the agreement and being aware of the risks falls on the users.”

 Source : http://www.coindesk.com

Physical bitcoin trade service provider SecuraCoin launches with multiple money service business locations catering to new and veteran users of digital currencies.

Toronto, Canada: August 21, 2014 – SecuraCoin has launched the world’s first physical retail bitcoin trade network specializing in servicing money service businesses (MSBs) and other brick and mortar stores. Providing top-level compliance training and software solutions to their Agents, SecuraCoin launched on August 20th with an initial network of locations focusing on the Greater Toronto Area in Canada.

SecuraCoin, which provides its Agents the ability to Buy, Sell, Accept and BitZipp bitcoin (send to SMS or E-Mail addresses worldwide), will shortly be expanding its service offerings to include an online buy & sell service, integrated mobile applications as well as grow its retail Agent network outside of the Toronto area.

Offering in-person instant digital currency services and catering to both new users and veteran traders, SecuraCoin is taking the initiative of not only providing educational material for its beginner end user clients, but also stating it will be offering new digital currency retail services based on block chain technology that it is developing.

Not only is SecuraCoin providing services to its own Agents, it is also signing on independent service providers (ISPs) that will benefit from SecuraCoin’s digital currency management system, compliance training and integrated advertising methods in jurisdictions that it currently does not operate in. These ISPs will have to register as money service businesses in their own local areas, and provide financial relationships themselves, but will operate under the operational oversight and branding of SecuraCoin.

Existing retailers interested in offering SecuraCoin services are urged to register to become an Agent or ISP at their earliest possible time as the typical turnaround and training period can vary according to the individual needs and AML compliance knowledge level of the applicant. Currently, SecuraCoin has the ability to service both Canadian and U.S retailers as Agents, but will shortly be expanding into the European market as well.

SecuraCoin is a fully registered and AML compliant money service business and bases its model on the training and oversight of its Agent network which will operate under its MSB registration where available. There are currently three types of retailers it provides services through: existing MSB Agents and Retail Service Businesses (RSBs) who do not currently operate in financial services, as well as Individual Service Providers. RSBs will be trained by SecuraCoin to offer its services with much lower transaction values and limited options, but after a period of testing and operation, may apply for promotion to become MSB licensed operators offering all levels of SecuraCoin services.

The team behind SecuraCoin comes from varied entrepreneurial experiences including franchise development, print and web media, financial services, B2B/B2C brand development and brings its experience in retail business growth and marketing to the bitcoin industry. Its goal is to increase consumer awareness and knowledge of the advantages of digital currency technologies, make these services more accessible and help businesses integrate these services into their workflows as well.

 

 

SecuraCoin has multiple strategic relationships in place inside and outside the digital currency industry, including well known trading platform Buttercoin and others, giving it the ability to execute and scale on its service offerings quickly and efficiently.

Combining both a physical retail trade network and an online service will allow SecuraCoin to bring much needed mainstream accessibility and exposure of the quickly expanding bitcoin space to users from all walks of life. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Source : http://thebitcoinnews.co.uk

Amagi Metals to Ditch USD for Bitcoin by 2017

 

Eventually, gold will only be purchasable using Bitcoin on Amagi Metals

In a surprise announcement made earlier today, Amagi Metals has revealed their plans to trade “exclusively in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.” Amagi Metals is an American based precious metal dealer that specializes in providing precious metals, which they view as superior money, to an international market through the technological advancement now known as eCommerce. Since 2012, the company has taken a strong, supportive stance of Bitcoin and has promoted its use well beyond just accepting it on their website. In a commendable continuation of this mission, Amagi Metals has taken the first step towards being a company that handles only Bitcoin, which has distinctive advantages and disadvantages. Amagi Metals has promised to stop accepting US dollars or other fiat currencies and to only accept cryptocurrencies. The never-before-seen business plan will be implemented by the end of 2016, over two years away.

Since 2012, when Amagi Metals first started accepting Bitcoin, the percentage of Amagi Metal’s sales that are executed in the cryptocurrency has risen from 0% to over 40%. Many precious metal firms also accept Bitcoin, but few have embraced it like Amagi has. By 2017, Amagi Metals will raise the aforementioned metric all the way to 100%. The vast majority of Bitcoin supporters, Amagi Metals included, recognize that Bitcoin will not have replaced the fiat system around the world by the year 2017; as such, Amagi Metals still plans to offer its services to customers with fiat currencies. However, Amagi Metals will be receiving Bitcoin for these onerous transactions:

“We will offer customers the ability to convert their fiat money to cryptocurrency on our website. They can then use it for purchases from us. Of course, that will be at the exchange rate at the time, whatever it may be.”

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Bitcoin is “Sound Money”

Since 2010, Amagi Metals’ CEO, Stephen Macaskill, has advocated a “sound money” philosophy to all of his customers. Since the official decoupling of the US dollar from gold in 1971, USD has lost 97% of its “value” compared to gold. More importantly, the basic domestic purchasing power of the USD has lost 83% compared to gold in the last several decades. Amagi Metals, and many other cryptocurrency supporters, are of the mindset that this trend will not stop as long as centralized money creation is abused. From the paradigm of this announcement’s supporters, the advent of Bitcoin and the landslide effect of cryptocurrencies will end up expediting the fall of the fiat regime.

In Amagi Metal’s announcement posted to their website, Macaskill explained:

“We want to be a leader in the sound money movement. With the adoption of cryptocurrencies increasing every day, their viability is virtually assured. History shows that paper currency, backed by nothing of value, will ultimately fail. It’s only a matter of time until no one will be accepting the dollar. By trading exclusively in cryptocurrencies, we’ll still be in business when that time comes.”

Amagi Metals still has over two years to work out the specifics as to their grandiose plan. The company will undoubtedly be searching for a Bitcoin processing service to partner with, since it is doubtful that they would open their own exchange and tackle the associated regulatory hassle. There are many unanswered questions to Amagi Metals’ plan: Will profits be held in gold, then? Will they use a service that takes fiat and pays out BTC, such as CoinVoice or BitPagos (Think reverse BitPay)?

Abandoning fiat currencies entirely has never before been possible for any sane company. Amagi Metals is the first but they most certainly won’t be the last.

As announced in the Bitcoin subreddit, Amagi Metals CEO will host an AMA on Reddit next week.

Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com

Blockchain.info Bug Took One Month To Fix

 

Blockchain.info has been offering Bitcoin wallet and block explorer services since 2011.

Reddit user 1a5f9842524 posted on /r/bitcoin detailing Blockchain.info‘s response to what was stated by the user as a “critical vulnerability.” The user specifically called outAndreas Antonopoulos, who has been viewed as a consistently positive figure in the Bitcoin community and a figure-head of sorts, though the user chose to paint this development as an antithesis to that persona. The post contains screenshots of a ticket submitted to Blockchain.info support in late July and following responses. The exact details of the venerability which affects the “wallet, API and shared coin services” have been blanked out for obvious reasons. Blockchain has gone on record as stating the bug was of a medium level, while 1a5f9842524 maintains that it was critical. Either way, the bug is supposedly fixed now.

User 1a5f9842524 is seemingly a white hat hacker of sorts and wanted to report the vulnerability that in his mind needed intermediate attention. Blockchain.info support responded with repetitively that the issue will be resolved eventually while the thread is bumped by 1a5f9842524 over the course of a month in an attempt to resolve the issue.

Andreas Antonopoulos has already responded under his Reddit handle of andreasma:

We encourage responsible security disclosure through a program with Crowdcurity:

Earn Bitcoin Points by Registering a user on CCN or Join our Mining Competition!

https://www.crowdcurity.com/blockchain-info
I will look into this ticket right away and see what is going on. It had not come to my attention, possibly was being handled directly by the development team.

This was followed up by a response from 1a5f9842524:

There’s no link to that page from the blockchain.info website, so saying you are “encouraging” it a complete lie.
http://google.com/search?q=site:blockchain.info%20https://www.crowdcurity.com/blockchain-info
At no point did your support team tell me this exists either.

What followed was a back and forth between the two which contains apologies from Andreas, but he goes on to express disappointment over the reddit post which reads as a personal attack. 1a5f9842524 blames Andreas for the revealed shortcomings in Blockchain.info’s security, given the fact that Andreas is Blockchain.info’s listed Chief Security Officer. Andreas revealed that he had not heard of the specific bug report yet, but the Blockchain.info dev team had a fix already that just needed to be rolled out. Of course, that is just a summary, and I would urge you to read the conversation in full.

Blockchain.info implemented the patch for the bug in a 2 hour maintenance hiatus earlier this morning.

Andreas Antonopoulos

Andreas Antonopoulos is an incredibly prominent figure in Bitcoin since its very early days. He has been consistently popular with the community for his public image and entrepreneurial qualities his personal website, antonopoulos.com, reads:

As a bitcoin entrepreneur, Andreas has founded three bitcoin businesses and launched several community open-source projects. He often writes articles and blog posts on bitcoin, is a permanent host on Let’s Talk Bitcoin and prolific public speaker at technology events. Andreas is also writing a bitcoin book for developers, for O’Reilly Media.

Andreas serves on the advisory boards of several bitcoin startups and serves as the Chief Security Officer of Blockchain. He is available for limited-scope strategic consulting projects.

 Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com

Delaware Legislates on Inheritance of Digital Assets

The US state of Delaware has enacted a new law that regulates digital legacy issues and allows families to access their loved ones’ digital assets after death or incapacitation.

Notably for the bitcoin community, the legislation should help protect the interests of Delaware residents with cryptocurrency holdings.

Late last week, the Delaware House of Representatives passed House Bill 345, the ‘Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act‘, which gives heirs and executors the authority to take control of digital accounts and devices, much like physical assets.

The law states:

“A fiduciary with authority over digital assets or digital accounts of an account holder under this chapter shall have the same access as the account holder, and is deemed to (i) have the lawful consent of the account holder and (ii) be an authorized user under all applicable state and federal law and regulations and any end user license agreement.”

HB 345 is based on the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA), which was created by non-profit organisation the Uniform Law Commission. Delaware is the first state to pass legislation based on the UFADAA.

Law limited to Delaware residents

Although Delaware is one of the smallest US states, it is home to a number of major companies. Due to its business-friendly policies, the state has managed to attract leading credit card companies, along with tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

However, the new law will not apply to companies incorporated in the state. It is intended for Delaware residents rather than companies.

“If a California resident dies and his will is governed by California law, the representative of his estate would not have access to his Twitter account under HB 345,” Kelly Bachman, spokesperson for State Governor Jack Markell told Ars Technica.

Bachman stressed that the law applies only to persons whose will is governed by Delaware law. Whether or not the company holding the digital account is incorporated in Delaware is irrelevant. This has obvious implications for bitcoin users in Delaware and if other US states follow suit and enact similar legislation based on UFADAA, these protections could soon be available to all US residents.

House member Daryl Scott, the lead author of the bill, argues that because legislators had not kept up with advances in technology, the new law will help protect the rights and interests of average residents.

The new law is not without its critics. however. Director of the State Privacy and Security Coalition Jim Halpert warns that the law does not take into account privacy and that it allows executors and heirs to view highly confidential communications between third parties and deceased family members.

Digital wills pose challenges

CoinDesk examined the pitfalls of digital wills and potential challenges faced by heir and executors earlier this year.

The issue of digital asset management in such situations has started to attract attention from legal scholars too. The British Law Society has already urged people to leave clear instructions for their intellectual property and digital media in case of death.

Bitcoin assets pose even more challenges due to their very nature. Trades can be executed globally in seconds, keys can be stored halfway around the globe, while bitcoins can be stored on a wide range of digital media and on physical wallets.

Most jurisdictions simply lack the legal framework for such situations. Therefore the best course of action for the time being is to be prepared for all eventualities. Delaware’s legislators are slowly catching up with technology, but the business-friendly state is an exception.

Source : http://www.coindesk.com